Circular ramp for garages and the like



Dec. 10, 1957 G. GORE CIRCULAR RAMP FOR GARAGES AND THE LIKE Filed March15, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 vjd mem I? llll |l| Q S Q v' 8 5;; 5%: k Rwy as Q s 1 e s e IN VEN TOR. George Gore Dec. 10, 1957 G. GORE 2,815,540

CIRCULAR RAMP FOR GARAGES AND THE LIKE Filed March 15, 1955 3Sheets-Sheet 2 Aff'y Dec. 10, 1957 G. GORE 2,8155

CIRCULAR RAMP FOR GARAGES AND THE LIKE Filed March 15, 1955 3Sheets-Sheet 3 n: O O -.l LL.

w 5 0: 8 1 Q3 0 CC 2 k "u g C O. D s N IN VEN TOR. Gearge Gore UnitedStates Patent CIRCULAR RAMP FOR GARAGES AND THE LIKE George Gore, SanFrancisco, Calif., assignor of one-half to Ferd W. Callison, SanFrancisco, Calif.

Application March 15, 1955, Serial No. 494,424

1 Claim. (Cl. 20-113) This invention relates to improvements in garageconstruction and parking arrangements.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a self-parkinggarage which can accommodate a large number of cars on various floorsthrough the use of a circular ramp having a low grade, together with afloor arrangement associated with each ramp level to provide selfparkingwith a minimum amount of efiort on-the part of a driver, as well as toinsure a steady flow of traflic over the floors and to the downramps,without interference from up-coming vehicles.

A further object is to provide a structure which may be easilyaccommodated to various lot sizes by rotating the axial arrangement ofthe ramps to the specific floor plan determined by the building shape.

A further object is to produce a garage of the character described whichmay be erected with a minimum amount of construction and costs incidentthereto.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent during the course of thefollowing description.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and inwhich like numbers are employed to designate like parts throughout thesame:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a typical ground floor of a building into whichvehicles enter;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a typical elevated floor;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a garage building having my inventionapplied thereto; and

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary enlarged cross sectional view showing the-rampsbetween two of the floors.

Heretofore garages as ordinarily constructed have been conventionalbuildings, some with ramps for driving the vehicles from one floor tothe next, some with elevators, and other of an automatic type where thecars are placed upon a certain area, elevated to a certain floor leveland then transported to a particular stall and driven into the stall 01fof the elevator.

Applicant has found that these types of garages are ineflicient, thatthey cause long delays in storing and returning vehicles to customers,due to the fact they are not suited for self-parking.

Also, these types of buildings require a large number of employeescausing prohibitive rate for parking, with resultant street parking andfrequent movement of cars from parking meter to parking meter, as wellas the effort of moving the cars and the loss of time incident thereto.

Applicant has therefore devised a garage wherein at some portion of thebuilding, and preferably adjacent one corner thereof, is located aseries of vertically arranged ramps which, together with theirassociated floors, form a continuous circular path from the bottom tothe top floor of said building. By an ingenious arrangement these rampswill carry both up and down trafiic and, also, both up and down trafilcwill travel in the same direction, thus eliminating any confusion on thepart of a driver through seeing another car coming in the oppositedirec- Patented Dec. 10, 1957 tion on the adjacent ramp, and thusavoiding accidents that might otherwise occur.

, Each ramp is so designed that it extends around the central pylonsubstantially one-third of the distance of a complete revolution. Theremaining portion of the revolution is on a level floor before startingup the next ramp to the floor above.

This arrangement produces a very low grade with comparatively lowceilings, with a resulting larger number of floors to a given heightthan in ordinary building construction.

Also, by having a large portion of the circular path on the level,;adriver is enabled to veer 01f into any particular parking space asdirected by a garage attendant, and also enables a person driving off ofa floor and on to a down ramp to have plenty of room to maneuver.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein for the purpose of illustration isshown a preferred embodiment of my invention, .andreferring to Fig. 1 inparticular, the numeral 5 designates the ground floor, and the numeral 6designates supporting columns for the floors above. At 7 I have shown aentrance lobby and at 8 cashier desks, the purpose of which will belater seen.

Elevators are shown at 9.

At one corner of the building I have positioned a pylon 11 around which,are positioned a plurality of supports 12 arranged substantially in acircle, these supports 12, together with the pylon 11, serving tosupport curved ramp sections 13 and 14 as best shown in Fig. 4.

The up ramp 13 fairs into, for instance, the second floor, and goesthrough substantially a third of a revolution, and has its upper endfairing into the third floor structure.

The ramp 14, being a down ramp, has its beginning end level or fairedinto the third floor and also rotates a third of a revolution and fairsinto the second floor.

Consequently two cars moving simultaneously on ramps 13 and 14 will begoing in the same direction and therefore will not interfere with eachother and will pass out of each others view after a short interval ofrunning abreast as the car on ramp 13 is moving upwardly at the sametime that the car on ramp 14 is going downwardly.

By referring to Fig. 1, the arrow A designates a car coming off of thestreet and going along a path indicated by dotted lines for gasolineservice or the like; a car entering as indicated by the arrow B will bein alignment with the beginning of the up ramp 13 going up from theground floor to the second floor. Cars can also enter as shown by thearrow C and follow the dotted line course around to the course shown bythe arrow B.

Cars entering the garage will pass an attendant located in the area 16,where the drivers will receive parking tags and duplicate stubs will beplaced upon the vehicles.

The tag that a driver receives will be time marked.

The driver then proceeds upwardly to a designated floor, for instance,the second floor, as shown in Fig. 2, and will then follow the arrow Dand into one of the parking stalls E or F, as the case may be.

When all of the stalls on the upper portion of the figure have beenfilled, then an attendant, who is located at the point 17, will directtraffic as shown by the dot and dash line arrow H, and the drivers willthen park in the stalls I or I.

At the end of the parking period, a person calling for his car willenter the lobby 7, present his claim tag to one of the cashiers, pay theamount due, and then take an elevator to the designated floor where hiscar has been parked. After getting into his car the person will back outand follow the dotted line indicated by the arrow G past the attendantat 17, where he will relinquishthe claim check, and move 01f of thedownramp and out of the building.

It is of course understood that there will be garage attendants on eachfloor to direct parking and unparking of cars therefrom. However, thenumber of attendants required will be greatly reduced due to theself-parking arrangement.

It is obvious that by rotating the entrance and exit points of thevarious ramps, the same can be accommodated to fit in with whateverfloor plan might best be suited for any particular shape of buildingarea.

It will thus be seen that my arrangement accomplishes all of the objectsabove set forth.

-It is to be understood that the form of my invention herewith shown anddescribed is to be taken as a preferred example of the same and thatvarious changes relative to the material, size, shape and arrangement ofparts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of theinvention or the scope of the subjoined claim.

Having described my invention, -I claim:

In a storage building for parking automobiles and the like, thecombination of a plurality of floors, each of which is divided intolines of individual parking areas, with said lines of parking areasopening into trafiic flow lanes, a dual concentrically positionedadjacent series of arcuate up and down traflrc ramps interconnectingsuccessive floors with each other, said ramps also being located at oneside of and at the extreme end of each of said floors, each of saidseries of ramps forming in conjunction with all of the said floors acontinuous winding passageway between the adjacent floors, one of saidseries of ramps being used by automobiles moving in an upward directionand the other of said series of ramps being used by automobiles movingin a downward direction, the entrance and exit ends of each arcuate rampfacing in the general direction of the traflic flow lanes, said traficflow lanes comprising at least three lanes, the outer two of which formfeeder lanes from an upcoming ramp to the middle lane, said middle laneterminating in proximity of the entrance to a down ramp.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,390,635 Mullaney Sept. 13,1921 1,392,610 Warren Oct. 4, 1921 2,218,676Friz Oct. 22, 1940

